Meaningful Mind in Brunswick, Victoria | Mental health service

Meaningful Mind

Locality: Brunswick, Victoria

Phone: +61 403 284 857

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• Medical and health
• Mental health service
• Meditation centre

25.01.2022 Appreciating the impermanence of emotions can hold a lot of power. While we can be with what we are experiencing in the moment, at the same we can acknowledge that it wont be that way forever. Appreciating that can open ourselves up for the possibility of change and transition as well.

25.01.2022 The July 6th Meaningful Mind meditation session has sold out. Tickets for the following three Monday night meditation sessions for the 20th of July, the 3rd of August and the 17th of August have been made available. In these times I ask that when coming to a session you observe social distancing regulations. In these times I believe that we are completely capable of observing social distance regulations and yet still come together collectively, share our experience and fully benefit from a shared guided meditation session. I hope to see you at one of these sessions and look forward to exploring our inner worlds together.

24.01.2022 So this discussion and meditation is all about how stress and anxiety is held in the body. Sometimes we are really disconnected from what our body is telling us, sometimes we are so tense that our body lets us know that we are experiencing mental discomfort. Ever needed to approach someone with a topic you felt nervous about? How did your body feel then? Sometimes we get pains in our chest, or our bellies, sometimes our body goes completely numb. Sometimes how concerned we ar...e about what might happen can make us feel really easily tired, or extra achy. Well, there is a bit of a two way process of approach here. Firstly, our mind can experience a strong emotion, like stress or anxiety and it can be represented in our body by tension and discomfort. Sometimes, and if its not too severe, we can tap in to that thought process and practice approaching the situation from another angle or we can try meditation which trains our minds to offer ourselves a little more kindness. Secondly, by getting a little more in sync with what our body is doing, such as trying some of these exercises Im about to show you, you can consciously relax your body, which gives you a better chance at thinking a little clearer. I always think that its pretty hard to be really anxious or angry if you have a relaxed and natural body posture. But, as always, it comes back to showing your experiences and emotions acceptance and acknowledgement. None of these processes discussed need to be forced. Take your time and only do what you can. In the video I explain this process, but at around the 2 minute mark I introduce a tense and release exercise. The exercise only goes for about two minutes and its a great to use for when you are not coping and need something to get you grounded and connected again. The audio (link in the comments) is a guided body scan meditation that goes for 11 minutes. Its a little longer but you can do it! If its too long go back and check out the "lots of thoughts" meditation

23.01.2022 If you feel as though the stage 4 restrictions is going to be a struggle to get through, that is completely understandable. You are not alone. There are many of us who are struggling with these changes and you do not need to struggle in silence. There is help available - be it through pausing for a second and showing yourself a little kindness, looking to adopt a new reflective practice or talking to a professional. Beyond Blue has online chat services as well as helpline services. Please reach out sooner than later. https://www.beyondblue.org.au/home

22.01.2022 With the way we interpret and interact with the world regularly changing, creating a kinder, more harmonious inner world should always be a priority. Negotiating negative thinking, overthinking, self-sabotage, insecurity and control issues is not only beneficial for our own happiness, but freeing up that head space allows to be more considerate, kind, thoughtful and loving towards others. As COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease and we become more social again its important that we go easy on ourselves, check our expectations of ourselves and of others and continue whatever good practices we have in place

20.01.2022 Well that was a lovely, fulfilling meditation held on Monday night. Unfortunately due to the isolation restrictions the foreseeable meditations sessions are now cancelled. However to those following this page I recommend trying to keep up a daily practice of being kind to yourself, and being kind to others. Ill be posting meditations to try, podcasts to listen to and other bits of information so lets stay isolated but still in touch.

20.01.2022 Whether you are looking to have a once off session to see what meditation is like, or you are looking for something ongoing, I will take you through a simple process of noticing the present moment and introduce concepts on how to process overthinking, stress and overwhelming feelings. 7pm this Monday night at Northcote Natural Therapies

20.01.2022 So what is meditation and what is mindfulness? While there are many loose definitions for both terms, it can be relatively easy to describe meditation as the committed practice to certain form of "noticing" with the mind. However loose it may be, you often set an intention prior to meditating, such as "I am going to simply notice my thoughts" or "I am going to focus on my breath." Meditation can be done with an instructor, sitting on a chair in a room, or it can be done by yo...urself, self guided. It can be done for a few seconds while waiting for the kettle to boil or an extended period of time in a designated setting. It is usually considered that meditation is conducted in a specific time and space like "I meditate for 5 minutes each morning before getting out of bed," but it can be really done anywhere, any time. Mindfulness is the process of awareness of experiences as they arise in the mind. Awareness of experience includes awareness of bodily sensations, reactivity, emotional reaction be it experiences of shame, anger, adoration, jealousy, relief and so on. In this context, mindfulness can done anywhere and all the time. The practice of mindfulness can be used to allow us to understand what we are experiencing as we are experiencing it. Mindfulness is considered to be non-judgmental, in that we are simply looking at what our experience is, not judging it to be good or bad. This becoming aware of experiences that mindfulness cultivates can allow for us to then understand, reason and regulate those experiences, which can be immensely useful in everyday life. So is meditation a practice of mindfulness? yes, absolutely. A committed practice of meditation can allow a dedicated, set aside time to work on mindfulness so that when we are talking to friends, replying to a text message, negotiating with housemates we are more likely to consider our thoughts and our actions in a mindful way. Meditation at Meaningful Mind incorporates mindfulness practice so we can go out into the real world and be better friends, partners, children, parents and enjoy more See more

19.01.2022 This meditation is about noticing and naming our experience. That is, during meditation we experience different sensations and thoughts and this is a gentle approach to becoming a little consciously aware of those thoughts and sensations. This meditation only goes for 5 minutes and the length between instructions is quite brief. In the next few days I will post the same meditation but the length of time for you to explore the instructions and notice and name your experience is a little longer. This meditation also hits the ground running, so find your comfy spot before pressing play and I hope you enjoy the experience.

18.01.2022 How did you go with last nights meditation? Did you find it easy to focus on the breath, or did you find yourself a bit lost with your thoughts and find it hard to come back to exercise? Either way is totally fine, you gave it a go. As a little bonus Im uploading another meditation tonight for those of you that have found it hard to get in tune with what is going on in your inner world. If youve felt a little overwhelmed with even noticing that youve been distracted with thoughts have a go at this meditation, it allows to you watch with openness and acceptance as to when thoughts come. Its simple, straightforward and creates a little bit of inner awareness :)

18.01.2022 "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." is a quote from Buddhist text that I consider on a regular basis. I know that I can easily get taken away with a small frustrations, like driving and the person in front of me is going 5kms under the speed limit. I can get worked up, say things to myself to try and hurry them along and it does nothing to make them go any faster! But what it does ...do is take me away from thinking about constructive things, thinking about the nice things that are going on around me, from appreciating the day, the music I have playing. So I would suggest, that next time you feel a hint of anger, at something or someone think of this quote and use the feeling of anger as a transitory state. Notice that anger and then decide how to take action to accept what is going on or make the changes that are needed or a combination of both, and drop the hot coal :) See more

17.01.2022 The information in this podcast is so important. Bren Brown expertly addresses how our entitlement and privilege might place us in positions of defensiveness and offence when we could really be in a place of openness and learning. While being centred around addressing racism, it is applicable to anything our ego is holding onto. The podcast goes for about 45 minutes and everything is nice and easy to understand.

17.01.2022 This is a two part post about the RAIN method, a process for working with strong, disruptive emotions. RAIN is an acronym for Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Nurture, which is a recommendation for stages to engage to those emotions. Each stage has its challenges, but facing these challenges present great benefits in feeling freedom from anger, frustration, anxiety, shame and other strong emotions. Here, Tara Brach takes us through a guided meditation on using RAIN to work with feelings of shame https://youtu.be/xlyuGSwaZQ8

16.01.2022 Supporting our base needs is important so that we have a strong foundation to work from.

16.01.2022 This is Brene Browns podcast. Ive been on a huge Brene Brown kick during the last few months because she addresses all the important stuff in such an open way that normalises issues that are often avoided. Here, Brene talks with former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy about Viveks new book called Together. They discuss loneliness in its many forms and affects. It is such a worthwhile listen and I strongly recommend checking it out. #NowPlaying

16.01.2022 If you are experiencing depression you are not alone. As well having been affected by it myself, I have been there as family members close to me have gone through their own struggles. Feelings of emptiness, lack of motivation, unexplained sadness are all things that can be part of depression and I have experienced myself. Over time, I have learned that these feelings may come again. I have also learned that there are some healthy processes and routines that I can start carryi...ng out and whether I feel like doing them or not, they will help to ride these experiences out. Here is a quick list of the things that I know to do when I wake up in a slump or Im just not feeling that great. Your list might be different and thats okay, everyone has their safe places and processes and this is a process of knowing them. The important thing is they are healthy coping mechanisms that you can go to them when experiencing such dips. My processes include: - Getting productive. Get to the gym, go for a walk and get coffee, put clothes away, tidy your desk, go and buy your groceries for the week. These things you might not feel like doing, but how much better is lying on your bed scrolling through facebook making you feel? - Consciously observe my feelings. By consciously observing my feelings and thoughts and understanding that the intensity, and the thought itself will pass I have felt less of an internal "battle" and felt more understanding at what Im going through - Educating myself. Listen to a podcast, read something interesting. This helps me to remember that the world is an interesting place and I am interested. - Rest/meditate. This helps reconnect myself with my inner voice. By noticing my breath or the sensations in my body I can appreciate that I have more of an input in observing my own experience than I might have been realising. This can be 1 minute, this can be 20 minutes. Whatever I can manage. - Getting to bed at a reasonable time AND NOT USING MY PHONE IN BED, and waking up on time AND NOT LYING IN BED ON MY PHONE. - Eating well. Try to avoid deep fried, overly sugary or overly salty foods. Sticking to a decent, regular eating routine can really help my mood, sleep and energy levels. I might feel like eating crap, but I know that eating What are some of your healthy coping mechanisms? By thinking about what they are, and how and when you might need to use them, it might allow you to roll them out when you are truly in need.

15.01.2022 I put together a video with my friend and Registered Psychologist Marie, to provide an introduction into understanding and managing feelings of uncertainty, anxiousness, feeling cooped up and other experiences of stress. In the first part of the video Marie takes you through some cognitive based therapy (CBT) basics to allow us to take another perspective on how we see our world (including threats) and how we can re-appraise them. In the second half of the video I take you ...through an introduction to meditation, I explain why meditation is especially good for people that have "a million thoughts" going through their heads. I then present a tense and relax exercise to get a bit of connection and communication back to your body, then the last part is an EASY guided meditation. The whole video is designed to be straight forward and casual so feel free to check it out if you feel inclined! Thanks so much for organising Marie

14.01.2022 Join us next Monday, the 2nd of March for meditation at Northcote Natural Therapies. We take you through methods in observing the breath and body to be more present and connected to your world

14.01.2022 How do you like to receive guidance for guided meditations? Do you listen to them on spotify? or on a specific meditation app like insight timer, 10% happier, waking up etc? Youtube can be a great resource for meditation as well. This is a great eyes open meditation with Deepak Chopra to try - https://youtu.be/4Bs0qUB3BHQ

14.01.2022 Brene Browns conversations with Oprah have yielded some really useful reflections about what drives us, especially in these times.

13.01.2022 The discussion yesterday about facing painful feelings is not simply a concept that I feel makes sense or is a good idea. I have personally lived through actively pushing away awkward and unpleasant feelings with various consequences. In my late teens, all the way through to my late twenties, to get rid of the unpleasant feeling of needing to be chatty and social I drank, to get rid of the unpleasant feeling of shame for blaming someone unnecessarily, I would shout and deflec...t. I went through a whole range of processes to deny looking at feelings. All of these actions did not allow me to connect with myself, they did not allow me to connect and get close to others and they did not allow me to understand what my strengths and weaknesses were. I am certainly not perfect now, but i know that there ARE other options. As hard as it was, starting to be kind to myself and acknowledging that I experienced unwanted emotions started to make room for my whole experience to expand. I was able to communicate better, be honest and open without being awkward, and understand myself better; it all improved. For now, lets just start to consider that we do have emotions that we dont like and that we might push them away. Accepting that they exist is the first step to allowing them to be in our lives without the need to immediately push them away. Over time well learn to look at them a little more. By doing this, these feelings actually wont take up more of our time, they wont hurt more. Here we go, plant that seed

13.01.2022 Next video (and link to guided meditation in comments) Here I discuss that at any stage of your meditation journey, taking the concepts you practice while you are meditating like continually coming back to approaching your thoughts with acceptance and acknowledgment and applying them in everyday life can start to make a huge benefit of meditation emerge. Looking to do this can help with reactivity, anxiety when it is actually needed. So, rather than just feeling more relaxed... DURING meditation, you can feel a little more at ease throughout the parts of your day where you meet challenges as well. This is a topic I regularly discuss in my Monday night sessions at Northcote Natural Therapies and offer different concepts to take away. The guided meditation in the comments is a short and easy, 9 minute meditation to have a try at. Thank you all so much for giving meditation a go and I hope every is safe and is trying to keep up good mental health routines.

13.01.2022 In this post from Dr. Jud, Judson Brewer shares why we might compulsively be checking the news, what it is doing for the reward centres in the brain and how we can divert that nervous, anxious energy elsewhere. Dr Jud is an expert on addiction and anxiety and is releasing daily videos on how we can deal with the anxiety and stress faced about COVID-19. https://youtu.be/10pZb-JRPdQ

12.01.2022 Well this event is now booked out! Thank you so much to everyone that booked a place and I very much look forward to next Monday nights session. Thank you and see you then!

12.01.2022 Another clip from Dr. Jud discussing how to understand what the brain does during worry, how worry can accumulate and also how we can work to mitigate it. The clip might be a little long but there is plenty of excellent information in there

11.01.2022 In line with dropping back and going easy on ourselves, I have just uploaded a 5 minute meditation that invites you to turn your attention inward and to notice the sensations in your body, thereby grounding you to the present moment. It can be great to be used as a break in your day and to recenter yourself if you are feeling a little overwhelmed or disconnected. https://soundcloud.com//meaningful-mind-5-minute-body-noti

11.01.2022 After such a substantial break we are back! And what a more important time than now to start to get the relationship with your inner world back in order. Kicking off our return to meditation, we will be doing some work to notice our thoughts, emotions and world around us. This is done with the outlook to connect with ourselves so that we can ultimately connect, or reconnect, with others in a more meaningful way. Group guided meditation is different to listening to a guided meditation track on your headphones at home in that it is a shared experience in a safe space. By practising these new approaches to thoughts among others, it normalises the process so you can start to put the practices into motion in other areas of your life as well. The first session back is free before going back to normal pricing in the following sessions.

10.01.2022 Another mediation and this time were moving up to 15 minutes. For those that are new to meditation this might seem like a while. If 15 minutes seems like way too long I have 4 other tracks on soundcloud that are shorter and easier to approach than this, so I would recommend checking these out first. So when you are ready, this meditation is around coming to terms with allowing yourself to set aside 15 minutes for meditation and accepting that thoughts, emotions and even agi...tations will come to you during this time. It is a gentle practice of noticing your experience rather than getting too taken away by it. In the spaces of silence in which Im not talking or guiding, try to use noticing your breath as anchor that you can come back to when you feel a little lost or without direction. If you have a thought trail, where you get lost in a succession of thoughts and come to after a few minutes of complete distraction, that is TOTALLY OKAY, just try and be kind to yourself and notice what you can notice :) See more

10.01.2022 Before I upload another meditation track I would like to say that when we are in the throws of anxiety, or stress, or over stimulation we might not have the ability to sit down and easily meditate. In the times in which we feel highly overwhelmed and cognitively overloaded, our system can be on high alert and sitting down to calmy relax and notice our world can be unrealistic. Active grounding has been really helpful for me to work with being overstimulated and highly reacti...Continue reading

06.01.2022 In the second part of the two part post on the RAIN method Tara Brach is interviewed by NPR and talks through each stage of the RAIN method - To Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Nurture those feelings and ourselves and applies it to feelings of anxiety. The RAIN method incorporates mindfulness to dealing with issues as they arise. It is something I adopted early on and have incredibly useful. https://www.npr.org//a-conversation-with-tara-brach-mindfu

05.01.2022 Meditation tonight at 7pm at Northcote Natural Therapies

05.01.2022 As we watch information on COVID-19 and how others are affected by it around the world discussed on the news and media outlets, we receive a flood of information and commentary on what the situation is, how to deal with the situation. We are given medical and social distancing practices, dietary and exercise advice and mental health advice from various outlets. I personally have been unsure of how often to post recently and what kind of information to put out there because of... this huge flow of information and the possibility adding to the feeling of being overwhelmed and confused. I do not want to be another piece of information, a recommendation from a practitioner or "expert" suggesting something that you could or should be doing to live better or more meaningful life when really it just feels like more pressure. That said, I do feel as though I have care to give. I have experience in this field that is worthy of sharing and importantly training that can provide insight into awareness that may be of help. So that said, I am going to take a slightly more gentle tack on here for a while, and largely focus on self-compassion and self-kindness first and foremost. From there I will begin to open up discussion on taking action, but going easy on ourselves will take the forefront for the time being. I hope this message finds you all well and I look forward to continue sharing my life, learning, struggles and perspectives with you. See more

04.01.2022 Hello! Not being able to conduct my fortnightly meditation sessions at Northcote Natural Therapies has given me motivation to create a lot more online content. Content which I hope comes across as useable and practical and motivates you too give meditation a try. I will be posting both instructional videos suggesting how to approach meditation and some of its benefits and guided meditations to try. The guided meditations are intended to be very easy and very approachable, so I invite you to watch listen and give it a go :)

04.01.2022 Here, Dr. Jud, an expert in anxiety and habit change, discusses what anxiety is, how it differs from fear, how it develops in our brain and what we can do to manage it. He will be updating his page with more videos, so if you are interested in learning a bit more about the formulation and management of fear and anxiety from an expert in the field during these uncertain times, go and check out Dr Jud.

03.01.2022 Great article on the realities of mindfulness and the influence of marketing and glorification. There is commentary in this article from some of the prominent researchers on Mindfulness in Melbourne. https://www.theage.com.au//mindfulness-changed-brad-s-life

02.01.2022 Chris Germer is a not only clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry, but also very interested in contemplative practice such as mindfulness and meditation. Chris specialises in self compassion and appreciates the difficulties that social, cultural and gendered issues can present when learning and practising compassion. Here I link you to Chris webpage on the meditations he provides free of charge for you to try and see if you get some use out of. https://chrisgermer.com/meditations/

02.01.2022 Here is the first Meaningful Mind online guided meditation! It only runs for 5 minutes and is designed to be super straight forward and easy to follow. It is designed for people with really busy minds with lots of thoughts that have possibly sabotaged your attempts at meditating in the past. All you need to do is to sit or lie down and follow the instructions. Give it a go :)

01.01.2022 Here at Meaningful Mind a very important perspective that we try to develop is making space for our fears, pains, "bad" emotions and feelings that dont always feel nice. The more we actively avoid and push away those kind of feelings, the more energy and attention they consume. There is a Buddhist saying, "Suffering equals pain times resistance". That is, the more we resist thoughts and feelings that are experienced as painful, the longer we will suffer from them. It might ...not make sense, it might seem like its doing something you would prefer to avoid, but the longer you avoid addressing the issue the longer it will remain there, lurking in the background. This doesnt mean that we have to confront everything that brings us unease head on and white knuckle our way through it - instead there are ways in which you can slowly acknowledge the presence of uneasy feelings. A key element here is being kind to yourself. Addressing painful feelings and experiences can be hard and it is important you go slowly and the pace you are comfortable with. Addressing difficult emotions is covered in meditation classes conducted by Meaningful Mind but in the next few posts ill cover a few ways you can consider approaching difficult emotions yourself and ways to make your internal world more of an ally and less of a battlefield See more